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FOREST GROVE, OREGON - APRIL 8, 2014 - This is a memorial on the northwest corner of Oregon 47 and Northwest Verboort Road, north of Forest Grove, the scene of the crash that killed two people Monday April 7th. Oregon State Police said a gold Hyundai sedan westbound on Verboort pulled into the path of a box truck traveling north on 47.
Benjamin Brink/Staff Photographer

“I just thought, ‘No, not again,’” Nelson said of hearing last Monday’s news. “I just knew it was going to happen again. To know it was two young girls going to college, I felt so terrible for them. I can’t believe [ODOT] didn’t do anything about it.”

"I know a light isn’t going to solve all of the accidents," Nelson said. "If it's a roundabout and that's the only thing that they will listen to, then we're fine with that but we just want something, preferably a light."

Since 2005, the agency has added turn lanes and signage, installed new lights for nighttime driving, put rumble strips on the road, and lowered the speed limit from 55 mph to 50 mph.

Nelson recalled the times when she drove through the intersection. “I felt nervous. You can’t gauge how fast people were coming. Everyone speeds on that road,” she said.

Nelson said her mother pleaded with ODOT officials for a traffic signal after the 2007 crash. Jim Roofener, of HPS Construction and friend of the Tawzer family, reached out to ODOT area manager Sam Hunaidi about the possibility of adding a signal to the intersection.

Roofener said he and his friend Glenn Walters planned to donate a signal. They offered to pay for the entire project, a cost of more than $150,000.

When ODOT declined the offer, Roofener wondered: “We can donate thousands of dollars to the schools and other agencies, but why couldn’t we donate a traffic signal to ODOT?”